The present invention relates to a capacitor for use with electrical equipment for such purposes as operating a motor, improving a power factor, charging and discharging, and smoothing.
As shown in FIG. 9, typical capacitor 101 comprises capacitor case 102 formed of plastics, capacitor element 106 having terminals 104 for external connection connected thereto, and filling resin injected into the gaps between capacitor case 102 and capacitor element 106 and cured. Conventionally, in order to incorporate capacitor 101 into electrical equipment, attaching sections 103 unitarily molded with capacitor case 102 have been provided at the bottom of capacitor case 102. Attaching sections 103 are provided in horizontal relationship with the attaching plane. Moreover, capacitor 101 is fixed by attaching attaching sections 103 to attachment 105 made of a metal plate, resin plate, wood and the like, using screws 107, as shown in FIG. 10. Fixing using screws 107 is not only made at one point, but also may be made at a plurality of points as required.
In the above-mentioned conventional structure, however, fixing using screws 107 is necessary when capacitor case 101 is attached to attachment 105. This poses a problem of requiring excessive time and man-hours, or more manufacturing cost in the process of assembling electrical equipment to which capacitor 101 is incorporated. Especially when the attaching screw is different from screws for other components, the number of screw types is increased. Therefore, the burden on the personnel is increased in manufacturing and controlling the equipment.
In addition, because change of screws involves change of screwdriver heads in operations, a large number of screw types increase the frequency of troublesome operations for the exchange of the screwdriver heads. Thus labor effectiveness is considerably decreased.
In turn, similar troublesome operations are required when the capacitor is removed.
Conventionally, elimination of the screwing step has strongly been requested from the demands on designing electrical equipment, reducing manufacturing cost, simplifying the manufacturing process, and the like.
In addition, because the terminals are exposed with conventional capacitors, entry of such contaminants as water and dust may lead to corrosion and imperfect contact of the terminals when the capacitors are operated in bad environment such as high temperature and high humidity. For these reasons, improvements for preventing these problems are desired.
The present invention is directed to address such problems.
A capacitor in accordance with the present invention comprises a capacitor element, a case for housing the capacitor element, and a fixing section having projections for attaching the case to electrical equipment. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the case and the fixing section are unitarily molded. The fixing section and capacitor case are formed of flame-resistant thermoplastic resins as required.
A capacitor in accordance with the present invention also has an adapter as an exemplary embodiment of the fixing section and the adapter has at least one projection. As an exemplary embodiment of the adapter, the adapter is integrated with a case by adhesion, welding or fitting.